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Recycled Can Garden Flowers

Do you have fun weekend plans? I do. I’ll be crafting. But I’m sure you all guessed that already. It was a hard choice between doing something productive or crafting, and due to nothing at all, I have no choice but to craft.

This has been a really fun week actually. I spent Wednesday making some really fun wreaths with a dear friend, and as soon as all the finishing touches are put on them, you’ll be the first to know. Unless someone on the other side of the world stumbles upon my blog first while you’re sleeping. But you can be second. Anyway, before we made wreaths I spent a good portion of Wednesday making these recycled can flowers. “Don’t you have a job or something Chase?” Sorta. I do some work here and there. I would like to think I’m un-fireable and very important to the company…or well at least to the boss, it’s my dad afterall 🙂 Mostly I enjoy my day and do all my work at night. Perks of a family business. Look into it.

Seeing as how it’s summer and people are supposed to be excited about flowers and such, I figured this was a better time than any to do this post. The flowers are actually pretty simple to make. It wasn’t nearly as hard to manipulate the aluminum cans as I thought it would be so don’t be intimidated. But be warned, there will be blood. Okay, it was only a tiny nick on my finger, however, I would hate to jump to conclusions in case it has to be amputated. It’s still too early to tell.

What you need:

Cans (I used 6)

Scissors (they don’t even have to be that strong)

Beads

Glue gun…if you have one on hand…you can get by without it though

Push pin

Floral wire, seen below

Two flowers are from cheapcraftymama.com, which for all of you who also appreciate cool crafts without spending an arm and a leg, you’ll love her ideas. The third flower is from Craftstylish.com and they made it as a brooch. I simply added a stem instead.

Instructions:

Flower #1

1. Get some cans. Try and pick colorful ones so they add some…color. There are three types of flowers to make. For the first one, jab the scissors into the can and cut horizontally all the way around at about an inch and a half from the bottom. Next cut it in slits and curl the slits, shown in the picture below.

2. Cut a circle from the side of a can that is about the size of the bottom. Crinkle it up like the picture below.

3. Cut another slightly smaller circle and crinkle again.

4. Poke a hole with the push pin through the center of each of those 3 pieces. Lay the pieces on top one another and string the floral wire through. Put a bead on and then string back down through the same hole. Tie a knot at the bottom to keep the layers tightly together (shown below). To make the stem I just layered up the floral wire and twisted a bunch so it was thick enough.

The completed version of flower #1 is the one on the right. The left flower is flower #3.

Flower #2

1. Cut a large circle.

2. Make 6 equally spaced cuts toward the middle, leaving some space in the center of the circle (so you don’t actually cut the circle into pieces).

3. Fold each piece in half, “hot-dog-wise,” then round the edges into petals. Below you can see that I am cutting to the left to curve the folded petal. that way when I open it, it will be rounded on both sides, symmetrical, and still have the dent of the fold in the center for the “vein.”

Below is another one I did that shows what the petal looks like after it’s rounded, before you open up the petals.

Once you open it up it will look like this:

4. Make a total of three of those, all different sizes.

5. Poke a hole with the push pin through the center of each of those 3 pieces. Lay the pieces on top one another and string the floral wire through. Put a bead on and then string back down through the same hole. Tie a knot at the bottom to keep the layers tightly together. Make the stem the same as flower #1.

Completed flower #2

Flower #3:

1. Cut two 5 or 6 petaled flower out of the aluminum can sides (to make this part easier you can draw the flower on with a sharpie and then cut it out. I didn’t care that much so that’s why mine is lopsided and has lots of character). Make one slightly smaller than the other, and flip it over so the silver side is showing on the smaller top one.

2. Next, place one flower-cut-out on top of the other and poke two holes near the center, per petal. This is where you’re going to string the wire through, adding some beads. Put a rag down and poke the holes. String the wire through the outer hole, put the bead on, leave a bunch of slack, and string back through the second hole, the inner, more central hole. Twist the slack, leaving a little bit at the end for design. Below I have shown what it will look like the right and wrong way. The left side is the wrong way to do it because the bead with come off. The right side, with the wire only going through the bead once, is the correct way to string it.

3. To be clear, I only used one strand of wire and just went up and back through, then up and back through. Repeat for all petals. I made the stem the same as I did in the other flowers. At the end I glued a bead on top of the other beads to enhance the center of the flower because the aluminum got a little crinkled while I was poking the holes.

Completed flower #3

If you need more pictures and clarification on the flowers, definitely head over to cheapcraftymama.com or craftstylish.com. They include lots of images and descriptions. Thanks for stopping by!